“I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.”

Could Republican handling of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations be any worse?

We suffered the embarrassment of a Plan B which sacrificed the one principle on which we have stood strong for absolutely nothing in exchange, a Plan B which already had been rejected by Harry Reid and the White House. Why would you force your members to vote on such a thing, and why would you even put it to a vote unless you knew you had the votes to pass it?

This is what happens when you play on someone else’s timetable, and by their rules:

Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, “I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?”

“You get nothing,” the president said. “I get that for free.”

Should be clear to all from WSJ reporting today that POTUS had no intention of making a deal except on the most one-sided terms. CONT’D.

Conservatives face a choice. Yield to “progressive” policies which, once implemented will take a generation to undo, or stand on principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and capitalism? Giving in is much easier, but in the long run more costly. We can learn a lot about the power of standing on principle from Anatoly Sharansky (see my earlier Post).

Sharansky spend almost a decade in Soviet prison because of his activities on behalf of Jews who wanted to emigrate to Israel. Sharansky was subjected to torture and other indignities, but never lost his spirit. Sharansky notoriously refused to obey even the most mundane orders from his captors. Sharansky understood that to compromise even a little would lead to compromising a lot. Throughout his ordeal, Sharansky kept his spirits alive by reading a small book of psalms.

As Sharansky was being led to the airplane that would take him from the Soviet Union to East Germany for the exchange, the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms. It would have been easy for Sharansky simply to keep walking towards the plane and freedom. But Sharansky understood that the Soviets confiscated his book of psalms not because they wanted the book, but because they wanted to show that even in this last moment, they were in control.

In front of reporters covering his departure, Sharansky sat in the snow refusing to move unless the Soviets gave him back his book of psalms. Here was this diminutive man, after 10 years in prison, on the verge of freedom, refusing to budge unless one of the world’s two superpowers gave him back his book. And give him back his book of psalms they did. Sharansky proceeded to the plane, where he read Psalm 30: “I will extol thee, O Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.”

Jay Nordlinger’s 2005 interview with Sharansky recounts not only the episode in the snow, but also the final moments when Sharansky walked to the car for the exchange:

Sharansky spent nine years in the Gulag, a harrowing time in which he demonstrated what resistance is. More than 400 of those days were spent in punishment cells; more than 200 were spent on hunger strikes. His refusal to concede anything to the Soviet state was almost superhuman. This was true to the very last. When they relinquished him to the East Germans, they told him to walk straight to a waiting car — “Don’t make any turns.” Sharansky zig-zagged his way to that car.

Isn’t it time for conservatives and supporters of free enterprise, individual liberty, and capitalism in the Congress and elsewhere to do the political equivalent of sitting down in the snow? When told by the new administration, the majority party in Congress, and the mainstream media to walk straight, isn’t it time to zig and zag?

We sat down in the snow in 2009-2010, and it paid huge dividends in the 2010 mid-term elections. We got up off the snow and selected a candidate who never sat in the snow, and we lost in 2012.

The conventional wisdom is that we should not sit down in the snow over the fiscal cliff.

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Beltway folks don’t seem to realize Obama is cut from different cloth than even many democrats. Until they do they are playing with fire and will just keep getting burned. Just because the thought of Obama’s motives and desires seem antithetical to our country doesn’t mean he doesn’t hold them.

Didn’t the Obama use this threat before … I’m thinking it was the debt ceiling. He promises he will demonize them if he doesn’t get his way. Being a demon, he knows how to do that well. But I think real demons are not supposed to announce their tactic is to shift blame.

Obama has a mandate yet to be fulfilled. Cut in half the irresponsible and unpatriotic $550 billion Bush deficit. That is what the deficit was when he made that promise. This election he promised what, 2.50 in cuts for 1 in “revenue”.

And Republicans should quit using Obama’s term “revenue”. A tax increase does not equal “revenue” .. it weakens the economy and may mean less revenue. It’s just a tax.

Obama is a successful thug. He bullied and demonized the Supreme Court in a state of the union address, and it helped him get Obamacare. He will continue his successful tactics, and Boehner had reason to believe Obama’s threat to him. That does excuse John Boehner’s weakness, just as Obama’s bashing the Supreme Court does not excuse John Roberts’ weakness.
Our country will continue to slip away so long as we have no eloquent leader to stand up to Obama.

The cowardly moron called Obama was going blame the republicans for every damn thing anyways.

What the hell else does he really ever do? Nothing is ever his fault, its Bush’s fault or Hillary fault, during the 2008 primaries.

I’m not rich, I won’t be affected by any tax increases this time around, but the monies that will be raised on those “evil” rich people is a drop in the bucket, only 60-70 billion this year, eventually Barry and the demonrats will be raising taxes on me, one of the middle income people.

The man is a cowardly idiot. Let him blame the repubs, everything he blames on them anyways.

“eventually Barry and the demonrats will be raising taxes on me, one of the middle income people.”

I agree. I think Obama is playing in a completely different galaxy than the Republicans. Obama is playing for transformational change.

The easy first step, which 51% of those who bothered to show up in November voted for, is to confiscate more earnings from the top 2%. Obama knows full well it does nothing to fix the deficit/debt problem.

Later, about year 2 of the second term, I think he’ll have to “reluctantly” talk about raising tax rates on the upper middle class and middle class, again, knowing full well it will barely dent the deficit/debt.

Then, gosh darn it, probably about year 3 of his second term, he’ll plead that he doesn’t want to do it, but we as a country have no choice but to face up to our financial problems and the only way to avoid a full blown debt crisis and economic catastrophe will be for Congress to enact a modest, “temporary” consumption tax. Maybe, as a token to help make the sale, he’ll give back some of the income tax increases of his first two years. Once the consumption tax is enacted our conversion from an entrepreneurial, growth based society to one where “Julia” is dependent on the state from cradle to grave will be complete.

So, the way I envision it playing out, only after income taxes on everybody except the working poor have been raised, and a modest consumption tax which I predict he will promise is only temporary but his intent is that it will be permanent, will he even consider modest entitlement reform.

And he’s doing everything in his power to wreck the Republican Party so that they lose the House in 2014 to ensure he accomplishes it all.

Obama suffers no consequences because Republicans won’t attack him. He tells horrible lies about them, and defames them with impunity. They won’t counter-attack because the media will call them names (racist, bigot, etc.).

BOO-HOO, GOP. Fight back. And if they accuse you of racism/bigotry/etc., fight back on that, too. See it as an opportunity!

Of course, that would mean unstrapping the knee pads, stopping the servicing of Obama, and standing on two feet like a man. I don’t think Boehner & Co. are capable of any of those three things.

That’s all well and good, but with no action, come January 1st, Obama and the Dems have the best of all possible worlds: rivers of new revenues from everybody, including big increases in taxes on earned income, capital gains, corporations and even the monstrous death tax; the ability to blame these tax hikes on Republicans; a clear field to demagogue about new tax cuts for the “middle class;” enough dough coming into federal coffers to cut projected deficits while continuing to spend like crazy; and a once in a lifetime opportunity to slash defense.

It’s not easy to manuever Obama out of seizing this extraordinary bag of goodies but it is sure worth the effort of trying. Step one is to present an airtight united front with only Boehner as the person Obama must deal with. But instead, many House Republicans have chosen to protect themselves from possible primaries and submarined Boehner.

What am I missing? The Republicans have already PASSED an extension of the current tax rates. On August 1, 2012, the House with 19 Democrats in agreement passed this bill, H.R.8 – Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012? The first part of the bill summary reads:

Title I: Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act – Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012 – (Sec. 102) Extends through 2013: (1) the tax rate reductions and other tax benefits of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, and (2) the reduction in the tax rates for dividend and capital gain income enacted by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003.

As far as I am concerned all Boehner and the Republicans have to do is remind the public that the Bush tax rate cuts have already been extended and if blame was to be meted out that the media should go over to the Senate and ask Harry Reid why the Senate has failed to take action on this bill. If the Boehner felt the need to pass something, anything, he and the Republicans could propose and debate extending the unemployment benefits, the FICA tax reduction and abolishing the Alternative Minimum Tax. Why the Republicans haven’t been touting this bill is beyond me.

It will take great moral courage to do battle in this culture. We are being attacked on all fronts. Compromise for compromise sake is worthless.

David saw Goliath as one who mocked God and His people. David said “enough.” David felled Goliath with a few small stones using his experience as a simple shepherd and his resolute faith in God. He didn’t ask permission to go ahead. He did what he had to do to remove the mocker. Government is mocking us.

The bigger this governemnt gets in our eyes the more we want to stand back in frustration and fear and complain about it.

We can either attack the giant head on or we just stand there looking like a bunch of soldiers scared of doing battle and waiting for the next shepherd boy to come along to save us from our fears.

I disagree with your analogy. The Powers-that-Be at least didn’t stop David from fighting Goliath.

The GOP is actively suppressing conservatives and the Tea Party (pretending we don’t even exist; even Gingrich, in his 25-point “How to Save the GOP” memo) from even getting into the game, let alone letting us have a go at Goliath.

The biggest fools are those who undermine allies to negotiate with enemies. That’s the

At this point, I think the Republicans in the House should offer and pass what they would have done with a GOP President and Senate. It won’t pass but it would let America know what Republicans believe in.